YogaJournalSingapore-February092018

75

february / march 2018

yogajournal.com.sg

pop in to a class expecting immediate results,

especially if you have never practiced yoga.

Instead, talk to the teacher, and depending on

how severe your condition is, consider taking

private lessons before you join the public ones.

Yoga works if we allow it to work. It will not

hurt if we practise it with an understanding that

less is more, if we practise with someone who

can explain the process through which the

body can access what we are trying to achieve,

and if we practise without trying to emulate

someone or something. Yoga is a beautiful

process, but only if we stop to understand and

see the beauty of it, without trying to push it

onto ourselves.

Paulina Buck teaches at Kate Porter Yoga in

Singapore. Read more about her at

http://www.kateporteryoga.com/paulina-buck/

If you heard your

calling, we would love

to hear your story.

Write to us at

[email protected]

kinder and more patient with myself. I did not
realize how frustrating it is not to be able to do
simple things like getting dressed!

I was adamant that I was not going to take
painkillers as I didn’t want to dull my senses
and lose awareness of my boundaries. I went
back to teaching a week after the surgery
with my arm in a sling (which I had to wear
for a month), but I was only teaching a
couple of classes a week. I started to go for
physiotherapy but it was largely restricted to
massaging the area. While my surgeon was
keen that I move my arm gently from the
very beginning, the physiotherapist, from the
kindest of hearts, was always telling me to be
cautious. Fear started to creep into my mind. I
wasn’t sleeping well as I was told if I had pain it
was because I had done too much and negated
the point of the surgery. I was fearful that
nothing I was doing was helping—but at the
same time my instincts were telling me I was
on the right track.

I decided to trust myself and my knowledge
of my body, but most of all, my 18 years of
practising yoga. I persevered with my own
yoga-centric conceptualization of rehabilitation
for a month. During that time, I went on a
holiday and kept doing everything I could to
bring more movement to my arm. I was still
not allowed to put any weight on my shoulder,
so to do a plank, I belted myself to a tree to
hold my hips and bring my weight further back
onto my legs than usual. I kept using the tree

for as many poses as I could whilst keeping

the weight off my shoulder and the back

healthy. We tend to forget the very important

connection that shoulders have to the back—

and trees make for good props! I kept doing

my pranayama, and continued to move the

arm as much as I could, slowly and carefully.

As soon as I got back to Singapore, I went

to the physiotherapist who had helped me

with a previous surgery (yes, I had shoulder

surgery back in 2010; it was a labral tear as

well due to an old injury from water skiing).

She and my surgeon were amazed at how

much movement I had only two months after

the surgery. The physiotherapist encouraged

me to keep doing what I was doing, gently

reminding me to give myself time to heal, but

not to be scared either.

I don’t take my rehabilitation and my progress

lightly. I’ve been extremely lucky to have

had an amazing surgeon, a very supportive

physiotherapist, students who encourage me,

and colleagues who cheer me on. But apart

from that, I’ve worked hard because I believe

in what I do.

I don’t advise people to bypass the

professional attention and help that the

medical profession can give, but I do

recommend the great benefits that can come

from working in conjunction with them and

one’s yoga practice. If you want to use the

practice to help you heal, the solution is not to